Have you ever been curious about the size comparisons between an Amarr Avatar-Class Titan from EVE Online and a Universe-Class Mass Conveyor from Warhammer 40K? You have?! Well, you’re in luck because DeviantArt user ~DirkLoechel has been assembling one of the largest and most comprehensive size-comparison charts for sci-fi ships.

The chart, which is still an ongoing project, spotlights the ship sizes from many of the most popular sci-fi universes out there, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and more than a dozen more. Heck, it even has the Red Dwarf on there.

This newsletter update includes the Twitter feeds for the lead developers along with a video announced as part of development Stage 3.

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Crusaders!

As you know, our development team is working hard on creating Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. As you may also have noticed, we want to make the community part of the creation process as much as possible. As such, we wish to take the time to introduce to you the key players who are living and dreaming of Warhammer 40,000 to create the best game possible!

Our brothers are working hard to produce your game but we asked them to stop for an afternoon to speak to all our loyal fans. Their messages are featured in our Phase 3 “Meet the team!” video.

Pay attention! You may be able to find hints of the upcoming game on the staff’s screens…

Glory to the emperor!

As per our Chapter Motto “There will be no Firewall Between the Dev-Marine and the Imperium of fans” Here are our Brothers` Twitter accounts. Ask them what you want but remember that as per the emperor`s will their primary duty is to fight the game-making battle.

The following is the second email newsletter received from Behavior Interactive about their late 2015 release game, Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. If you haven’t yet signed up for their email distro, follow the official game FAQ link below.

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Fellow crusaders!

Welcome to the second edition of the Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade newsletter – may it continue for the 24 months to come.

In the last few weeks we’ve been busy answering the countless questions from fans and the press. You can catch up on sites like MMORPG.com or IGN, or check out our AMA on Reddit and the associated twitch.tv stream. Don’t worry about the Inquisition, all heretical content from those interviews has been expunged. To accompany all the Q&A’s we’ve been doing lately,the link to the first version of the official game FAQ has been included with this month’s correspondence.

Of course, alongside spreading the word we’ve been making progress on the game itself! At this time, development has ramped up and we are confident that we’ll be able to show our first gameplay footage in the form of an early combat demo in October and a demonstration of in-engine massive battles by the end of the year. I’m very excited to finally have the opportunity to show the game, and look forward to hearing your reactions!

The recent phase 2 site update focused on two things: Races and Space Marine Chapters. Regarding the first point, these four selections are going to make for an awesome game, but just in case your favorite wasn’t on the list I want to reaffirm our intention to bring more races after launch – with the Emperor’s blessing.

We intend to apply the same philosophy to the rest of the game’s sub-factions, but since we’ve received so many requests for alternative Space Marine Chapters (and one in particular), we’re exploring the possibility of adding an additional group per race for launch, selected by the community. Stay tuned for more details!

Until next month, please keep sending in your questions and trust in the Emperor!

Awwwww, yeah! War40K’s email journey has begun! If you’d like to receive your very own copy of the emails from now on, go here and signup. I don’t see anywhere on their website that links to this content, so…sorry. 🙂

By the way, there are four games that every Warhammer 40,000 dev must play:

GREETINGS, FELLOW CRUSADERS!

Welcome to the first edition of the Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade newsletter. I’m David Ghozland, Creative Director on the project.

First of all, I wanted to say that myself and the team here at Behaviour Interactive can’t thank you enough for your support. We knew there would be a big response to a new 40k MMO, but the passion and enthusiasm we’ve seen from the community has gone beyond our expectations.

We consider this to be YOUR game – the online 40k world that the fans have always wanted. To that end, we’ll be setting up a space where you can communicate with the devs and share your thoughts. Expect some news on this front very soon!

In the months to come, this newsletter will be a platform for expressing our specific intentions on this project and communicating the thought processes behind its development. For the inaugural edition, however, I’d like to say a bit more about the game itself.

A World At War

One of the first misconceptions we saw about the game based on the announcement was that because of the game’s genre, people thought that we were making a “traditional” MMORPG. If you looked out our “required playing” list for new team members*, you’d see that we’re planning on making something quite different indeed. We believe that the MMORPG genre is one with vast possibilities – just look at EvE Online or Firefall to see how far it can stretch.

In Eternal Crusade, we’re presenting a war on a planetary scale, but what you want to do in the game world is really up to you – there’s no traditional quest or leveling structure in the experience. When you drop down to the planet with your friends, you’ll have a great overview of the ongoing conflict due to both traditional UI elements and community channels. If you want to head to the front lines and fight where you’re needed most, you can drive over there and do so. Along the way you might meet players from the enemy faction skulking about, or maybe you’ll spot a tantalizing entrance to the world beneath the surface or a Tyranid infestation bursting out near one of your strongholds.

Or perhaps one of your squad-mates will get an idea to hit the enemy behind their lines at a particularly valuable strategic position. It’ll take some skill to get there unnoticed and you might be guaranteed to have the enemy’s attention once you’ve done the damage, but the game’s not going to stop you!

Part of what makes this possible is that MMO technology has come far enough to allow for true skill & precision-based gameplay and we’ve made a deliberate choice to make progression as horizontal as possible. A small amount of power gain is inevitable, but in a PvP-focused game it’s crucial that the vast majority of progression is about filling out your tactical possibilities and increasing specialization. Tabletop 40k has been a big inspiration in this regard, as you’ll see when we talk more about creating your character builds.

The other part is that we’re not creating a “content-heavy” world, but rather one driven by gameplay systems. There are unique spots to find, environmental lore bits and an ongoing narrative, but community efforts and Tyranid invasions drive the battle for the surface while the shapes and challenges of the underworld are generated procedurally. Our aim is to make an online world that never stops being able to surprise its players.

If this sounds good to you, stick around! We’ll keep talking about the details of the game design and other production updates right here, so if you know anyone else who might be interested in these topics, you can encourage them to register on the site.

Wow! What a score for TenTonHammer! Warhammer 40k has been a long-awaited MMO and this exclusive interview gives us the inside scoop on how long conflicts can last (weeks to months!), that it’s being developed more as a sandbox MMO, and that Warhammer 40k will be FREE TO PLAY. Oh, by the way, you can combine your ships with others forming one massive ship (e.g. guild halls). Uh, hell yeah!

Head below the asterisks to read the original article.

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In a week full of surprise announcements, few have had MMO gamers more excited than the unexpected rebirth of the Warhammer 40k MMO. While the game wasn’t officially being shown at E3, Miguel Caron, Head of the Online Studio at Behaviour Interactive was awesome enough to sit down with Ten Ton Hammer to discuss the design concepts behind the game, expected to launch sometime in 2015.

Our discussion touched on a typical day in the life of a 40k player, the player run chain of command, playable races, and plenty of other interesting tidbits. As I listened to Miguel’s impassioned descriptions of the game, it became readily apparent that he’s just as excited about making the game as fans of the 40k universe are to play it.

Space Marines like to come in large numbers.

From a stormbird’s eye view, Warhammer 40k will be somewhat of a sandbox game along the lines of EVE Online, only given a bit more structure in terms of how large-scale conflicts play out. The scale of these conflicts is said to be absolutely massive, or about double that of any other multiplayer game currently on the market.

As Miguel explained, “In terms of technology, we’re currently aiming to double the amount of players on the same battlefield over the biggest game right now. I want to give the visceral feeling of what it is to be part of the war. And it’s not an easy war, but a very dirty war.”

Another thing Miguel was quick to point out is that gamers do tend to like having some form of win condition involved, no matter the type of game they happen to be playing. As such, conflicts in the Warhammer 40k MMO will last anywhere from two weeks up to a few months in duration.

“One of the things I hate in massive warfare games is that there is no winner; they never finish. So what we’re aiming for is campaigns that run from two weeks to three months. The reason why I’m saying from two weeks to three months is because I don’t know who’s going to win, and how fast they’re going to win.

There are four different races that you’ll be able to play. The first will be the Dark Angels from the Space Marines, the Iron Warriors for Chaos, and then the Eldar and the Orks. Then I control the Tyranid – they can’t really be controlled by players because it’s a hive mind.

For example, if I see a huge population of Space Marines playing in the US for a new campaign and they outnumber everyone else to the point they’re about to wipe out the entire planet within days, suddenly the Tyranid would be a lot more interested in them. We’re not going to try and counter that kind of imbalance too much, but enough to help campaigns last for those two weeks.”

A Day in the Life

A typical day in the life of your character might play out something like this. You log on and create your character. From there you load into the game, and will spawn on your ship, which serves both as a form of player housing and flying trophy case all in one. If you decide to permanently join a squad with other players, the group of you will even be able to combine your ships into one massive vessel. If that happens, you’ll each retain your own individual compartments, but will effectively have a guild hall for your squad, making it easier to connect and dive into the action together.

In the GRIM DARKNESS of the future, there is additional grim darkness.

With that squad, you might get voted by your friends to become squad leader. As such, you’ll have the ability to issue objectives for the rest of your squad, in effect creating content for them.

In terms of the overarching chain of command and how it fits into the game, Miguel explained, “When you start the game, the objectives that you have are not given by us, they’re given by other players. We have three ranks of hierarchy: squad leaders, chapter leaders, and then the war council for the whole race. There will be requirements you’ll need to meet to become a squad leader and above, but the players will vote for you to become one of them.

We have a whole system where players can nominate their friends as their squad leader. And then all the squad leaders will nominate someone to be chapter leader. Finally, all the chapter leaders will nominate and vote on who they want to be part of the war council for the whole race.

So when you start as a new player, the objectives that you’ll have will be coming from that war council, chapter leaders, and squad. If you decide to follow these objectives, you’ll gain an XP bonus. So you don’t have to do those objectives, only if you want to get the bonus XP. But the purpose of the game is to make sure your race wins; you’re there playing to win the war. But what this system does is it allows players to invent gameplay for their race.”

Welcome to the Machine

The game will be free-to-play, but if there were any two things that Miguel stressed above all others, it would be his insistence that the 40k MMO be the most immersive game it possibly can be, and that he does not want the game to have any pay to win elements.

An example of items players might be able to purchase that would help fulfill both of those needs would be additional, unique executions for each faction. When you fall on the battlefield, your squad or other members of your faction have the opportunity to revive you rather than immediately forcing you to respawn at another location. However, an enemy still has the opportunity to ‘execute’ you, Think of this almost like finishing downed players in Guild Wars 2 PvP.

Eldar vs. Tyranids will be happening. The above screen is from Dawn of War II.

In the Warhammer 40k MMO, you’ll be able to do some standard executions, or there could be more interesting or elaborate executions you can purchase. These will be faction-specific, so imagine seeing an Ork Boy run up to a defeated Space Marine and dancing around a bit before sitting down on and squashing his head.

In terms of server structure, the game is going to be one massive game world. Different instances of specific areas might spawn, but Miguel is conscious of the need to keep players connected with this type of setup. The idea here is that you should be able to click on your friend or squad member’s name and it will instantly summon them to the same version of the world that you’re in.

Before we wrap things up (don’t worry, we have loads more info on the 40k MMO to follow soon!), another of the comments made by Miguel about what sets this game apart from other MMOs out there certainly struck a chord with me.

“The game has very simple gameplay, yet is also very, very deep. The premise is that there is only war; it’s total warfare. Now, there’s a lot of depth to it, but I’m not going to hold your hand and tell you a story. I’m not going to have you playing a Space Marine mining ore or things like that, because they don’t do that. You’re not going to care about delivering some package to Ms. Smith. This is a game about total warfare. It’s impossible to please everybody, but I can guarantee I will please the core fans amassed around the 40k universe.”

From what we’ve heard about the game so far, it’s definitely piqued our interest to say the least. Stay tuned for more details and info on the Warhammer 40k MMO from our discussions with Miguel Caron. In the meantime, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the announcement and info revealed about the game so far!

While we’re currently experiencing a strong sci-fi MMORPG showing (Firefall, SWTOR, Defiance, Marvel Heroes, several new announcements for Xbox One and PS4, etc.), it’ll be interesting to see the niche War40K: EC can carve out for itself by the time it launches “End of 2015”. End of 2015? Two-and-a-half years? Dang. That’s longer than I have to wait for an Asian MMORPG to be Westernized and released in the US. Insert sad face here.

Currently the official website shows development is on “Phase 1: Game is Announced” and there are eight more phases to go, with Phase 2 “coming soon”. Thus far, you can choose one of four races (all shown below) and enroll, posting to Facebook or Twitter to show your support and the race you selected. War 40K: EC will offer “3rd Person, Persistent Online Action in the first MMORPG of the 41st Millennium”.

Read on for the full scoop about Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade!

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IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE
THERE IS ONLY WAR

Chaos

If your hopes for a Warhammer 40k MMO were extinguished with THQ’s fire sale of Dark Millenium Online, one of the first announcements of E3 (that’s E3 proper, not pre-E3 Xbox One day or the other jump-the-gun events) may get you fired up.

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade marks the first MMO for Behaviour (that is, unless we’re counting Sims 3), and the first game since Wet (which, coupled with the possibly orgasmic female on the cover, never fails to bring out my nerd giggles) that has my immediate attention. And even without a glitchy presentation at yesterday’s Microsoft circus, it is apparently coming to the Xbox One.

The show floor hasn’t even been open for 30 minutes and this might qualify as the MMO surprise of the event. While our E3 away team wrangles for an appointment, here’s the full press release:

Join the Eternal Crusade™ starting in 2015

A new Warhammer® 40,000® MMORPG revealed.

Space Marines

Montreal, 11th June, 2013 – Behaviour Interactive and Games Workshop® proudly announce a new online game in the Warhammer® 40,000® universe: Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade. Behaviour Interactive has obtained the rights to create a wholly new MMORPG persistent war experience for PC, PS4 and Xbox One set in Games Workshop’s universe of the 41st Millennium. In the game, players choose a Warhammer 40,000 race and fight directly as one of their warriors in massive conflicts for territory. It will be up to each faction’s community to determine their own destiny as they vie for control of an entire planet.

“I am thrilled to announce what will finally be the first MMORPG based on the “Warhammer 40,000 license,” said Miguel Caron, Head of Studio, Online at Behaviour Interactive.“ Eternal Crusade’s team are all MMO development veterans and with the support of Behaviour’s 20+ years of experience this is going to be the online Warhammer 40,000 universe game that fans have been dreaming of for years!”

Eldar

“Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is the second milestone in Behaviours new online strategic positioning after last year’s Star Citizen Announcement.” said Rémi Racine, President and Executive Producer of Behaviour. “We are very happy with the progress of the online studio and you should expect more similar announcements to come.”

“The depth, breadth and sheer level of detail that the Warhammer 40,000 universe has after 26 years of continuous development makes it one of the great fantasy settings of our times.” said Jon Gillard, Head of Licensing at Games Workshop. “Experiencing the thrill of first hand combat in this world of eternal conflict, with thousands of other players beside you, will be fantastic.”

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One and will release in late 2015.